Sunday, January 31, 2016

This week's Wednesday Watercooler Challenge is Anything Goes. That means the only limit is one's imagination! My brain seems to be thinking spring and flowers. The 2015-2016 Annual Catalogue has some wonderful stamp sets featuring good-sized blooms that are perfect for any kind of colouring. Because I am also entering the Design Team Call I have chosen two different ways to colour your flowers.My first sample features the Remarkable You stamp set and watercolouring.

I stamped the image on watercolour paper using Archival black ink. Only one colour of ink was used - Watermelon Wonder. Simply do a light wash of colour, leaving some white spots, by picking up a bit of ink with an aquapainter. After that dried, I picked up some more ink and went over some parts to give it another layer. Let that dry and then put another layer over a couple of areas to give it more depth. Very easy to do - and quick!

Using the circle collection framelits, cut out the image and a larger circle of Basic Black cardstock. The sentiment is from Picture Perfect.

The chevron pattern is from the Neutrals Designer Series Paper Stack. One of the patterns is a diagonal stripe. I cut strips of different widths and put them together to form the chevron. It's all mounted onto Basic Black. I love the monochromatic with a splash of colour!

My second offering is sort of sepia and features a different technique.

Not sure what this technique is called. The lovely big bloom is from one of the Hostess Sets, Best Thoughts, from the 2015-2016 catalogue. I stamped it with Early Espresson on Baked Brown Sugar. Yes, I've been hoarding this gorgeous retired colour!

The ink is Whisper White Craft ink. Squeeze a bit from the refill bottle into the lid of the craft pad. Use a blender pen to pick up the ink and colour in the petals. I did two layers of white, letting it dry between layers. After it was dry, I used an Early Espresso Stampin' Write marker to add some detail. Finish off with dots of white gel pen and sponge the edges. Another quick and easy card!

Here's a close-up:

The sentiment, embossed with white embossing powder, is also from Best Thoughts. This would make a suitable sympathy card.

Hope I've inspired you to give your flower stamps some love and try some colouring techniques!

Thursday, January 21, 2016

For me, it was the Hop that almost didn't happen. There was some debate as to whether or not I would be able to participate as I didn't know if my order with my new stuff would arrive on time. Well, it did - only 2 days ago -and here I am!

We are featuring products from the awesome new Occasions catalogue and FREE - that's right - free stuff from the Sale-a-Bration collection. This is always such an exciting time of year in the world of a Stampin' Up! demonstrator as we finally get to see these two eagerly awaited collections.

If you are following our line-up in order, you've just come from Priscilla's blog and I'm sure you are totally inspired now.

For my first project, I wanted to highlight the Perfectly Artistic Designer Series Paper from the SAB (Sale-a-Bration) catalogue. Trust me - this paper is just gorgeous! But - it is a limited-time product, which means it is only available until Feb. 15. You won't want to miss out on this!!

I used a technique on this that I had learned when I first started stamping about 8 years ago. It's called Faux Cloisonne. How it's done, is by picking an image - such as this flower from the Remarkable You stamp set in the annual catalogue - with open spaces and bold lines. Next, find a background to stamp it on. The Perfectly Artistic DSP is, well, perfect for this technique as one side of it is marbled. I chose the Crushed Curry sheet to stamp the flower using Versa Mark ink and embossed it with gold embossing powder.

Next, cut the flower out, following along the edge of the embossing. Yes, I do enjoy fussy cutting! Since I also had just received another wonderful product from the Occasions catalogue - Wink of Stella Glitter Brush. How much fun are these??? I used the clear and it makes a beautiful sheen over your image. Unfortunately, it is difficult to photograph it.

For the background behind the flower, I used the Tempting Turquoise sheet from the Perfectly Artistic DSP. The marble-y side at the bottom is the water the flower floats on. I think this flower image could be a lotus blossom. The other side of the DSP has a watercolour wash look to it. The top part behind the flower represents sky.

I stamped the sentiment from the Picture Perfect stamp set using Archival Basic Black ink. There is a tiny border of Whisper White framing everything and this is backed by Crushed Curry.

It really was a quick card to put together and would be fun to do it in all the colours of the DSP. Hmmm - guess what I'll be doing in the next few days?

My next project uses very bright colours! It's been rainy and gloomy here on the Pacific Coast of British Columbia and it was fun to work with these colours. And using the hummingbird image from Picture Perfect conjures images of spring.

Now, I have to say this is a four-part image, with each part being stamped separately. And - it did take me some practice and a few tries to get an image I was happy with. If you watch any of the videos on the Stampin' Up! YouTube page, they say to stamp the part labelled #1 first. However, I found it worked better if I started with the #4 part first and worked backwards.

Each layer is stamped with a different colour of ink: #4 - Tempting Turquoise and Tangelo Twist for the beak; #3 - Marina Mist; #2 -Cucumber Crush - this is the throat; #1 Wisteria Wonder, stamped off once. And I just had to use some Wink of Stella on the Cucumber Crush part.

I also used some of the fun images from the Timeless Textures stamp set. The flourish image makes lovely branches stamped in Mossy Meadow. Around the edges I used Tip Top Taupe, stamped off once for the smudgy-looking layer and full strength for the dot pattern. The little flowers stamped in Watermelon Wonder is from the Sprinkles of Life stamp set. And the card base is Cucumber Crush.

Your next stop on this journey is Deb - and you will not be disappointed! Just click on the 'Next' button to visit Deb. If you want to go back, just click on the 'Back' button. And, if you get totally lost, simply click on the 'Home' button to go to the mother blog where you will find the entire list of participants.

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"This is a personal web site of Gail Allen, an Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, and I am responsible for its content. Stampin' Up! does not endorse the use of or contents of the classes, services, or non-Stampin' Up! products I may offer here."